Firm History

Roger Fruci Sr. founded Fruci & Associates in 1938 out of a small office in the Hutton Building.  Roger operated the entire company by himself, initially offering complete bookkeeping services for $5 per month.  This often required him to work until all hours of the night, 7 days a week. 

In addition to offering accounting services to his clients Roger also taught Accounting at Spokane Junior College, Gonzaga Preparatory School and Whitworth College.  Roger enjoyed teaching immensely and eventually started to hire some of his students as part time or full time interns within the Firm. 

In 1941 Roger joined the Air Force and left his Spokane practice in the hands of Joe McFarland (founder of McFarland and Alton, now part of Moss Adams).  Roger was stationed in Los Angeles as an Auditor for 4 years and, when he returned to Spokane, Joe was gracious enough to hand back all of his clientele so that he could resume his practice.

After WWII Roger relocated his offices to the Columbia Building.  The landlord at this location had a practice of turning the heat down to 57 degrees at 6:30 pm each evening.  Roger used to place a cold wet cloth over the thermostat so that it would keep pumping out heat in the evening.  When the landlord asked him not to do this, Roger could see that he needed to be in control of his own space.  Soon thereafter he purchased the Wallace Hotel (the building in which the business currently resides) and remodeled it to allow for the space the firm needed as it grew.

In an effort to help clients and government agencies recognize paperwork coming from his office, Roger started to use green stationary.  He became known as the “green” accountant, using green paper, green ink, green bills and green delivery bags.  Today green is still the firm color.

On Saturday, August 25, 1951, Roger was elected President of the Washington Association of Licensed Public Accountants.  While in that position he pursued the abolishment of the less rigorous LPA designation in favor of a single CPA license in an attempt to raise the standards of the profession.  Roger also served on the Washington State Board of Accountancy.  Today we are proud to have our own Zoe Ann Foltz serving as the Vice Chair for the Washington State Board of Accountancy.

During the 1950’s and 60’s Roger and his wife, Marion, continued to build and develop the firm with their 4 small children, Paul, Paula, Roger Jr. and David, helping whenever possible.  Marion took on the janitorial and bookkeeping work for the firm while the children stuffed envelopes.  Roger taught his children to “do whatever it takes to help our clients”.

Roger always listened to his clients to determine ways of helping them.  It was this concern for his clientele that prompted Roger to offer Medical Office Management to his menu of services.  Over the years he developed very comprehensive, professional systems and forms to help the doctors manage their businesses.  His youngest son, David, eventually took over this part of the firm and developed it into his own company called Fruci Financial Services.  In March of 2001 Fruci Financial Services merged with a Portland, Oregon firm, Anesthesiologists Associated Incorporated, and assumed their name.

Roger formally retired in 1989 and passed the management of the accounting firm to his oldest son, Paul M Fruci.  Today, the firm employs 35 employees, one is Roger’s son and three are Roger’s grandchildren.  In addition to the full range of accounting and tax services, the firm has also added QuickBooks Consulting and Business Development into its services.